hay bar type thingy

[madhector]

really wanted to get a hay bar for hector to try and stop the mess, unfortuently cannot afford one at moment or in near future, anyway kind father said he would build me one

will be wooden just wondering how to build it, bit worried about safety(dad has no concept of how somethings are dangerous to horses) so how would people go about it, should it slope towards the wall or go straight down? anyone got one in their stables?

 

[JACQSZOO]

I was having the same dilema as you. I measured up, toddled off to B & Q and nearly died of heart failure. It would have worked out approx £5 cheaper to build it from scratch rather than by the real deal. Needless to say I am awaiting delivery of my new hay bar

 

[air78]

I don't use one (just put it o the floor) but have seen them in-situ.
I should think that if you made it as a straight ibar of wood attached to the floor (big screws, very firm!), then one attached above but a bit further out so the 'hay bar' doesn't have straight sides, again this must be really solidly attached, then used something like half round posts to create the front, that would be suitable. I hope that makes sense, it's really hard to describe what you mean without a picture!
My main concern would be the horse putting a foot through it i.e. if you used like floor board thickness wood, or ply wood stuff. The half round post stuff would be really solid, and is likely to be treated (like fencing) so should be fairly rot proof.
Also, my horse crib bites so i wouldn't use one, but you need to watch out for chewing, or cribing as they might pull it off the wall.

 

[Bounty]

We built our own - luckily we had rather a lot of ply board sitting around, so i didn't have to go through the pain of coughing up for them.
Ours are triangles, with the top point cut off. These are then turned upside down if you see what i mean, to let the seeds drop out the bottom. Because of the triangle shape it slopes towards the bottom.
We were going to use 2x1 to form a channel for the boards to slot into, but in practise we only needed one section on each side, which the boards sit behind, quite snug to the wall.
We were going to put some hosepipe over the top edge to round it of, but haven't needed to.

Hope this helps, me and my bloke did them in a day, and aren't particularly adept with a table saw, so it can't be too hard!
Will take pics for you if you like.

Meg x

 

[pottamus]

I have started putting my boys hay on the floor instead of haynets...I cannot afford a hay bar so am using a huge flexible water bucket with the handles on it. I tie one of the handles in close to the corner of the stable with a haynet ring and it has worked a treat...hardly any wasteage and it only cost me £8!

 

[madhector]

-meg
thats sounds very easy, could you send me a piccy? how big did you make it? thanku

 

[Equibeau]

I have recently bought a haybar, I am quite disappointed with it, tbh. My horse pulls the hay out and it is just as messy as feeding off the floor! If you do decide to build your own, make it quite robust, I caught my horse rubbing on his, and he was exerting some force!

 

[jumbyjack]

My mare did just the same, haylage all over the stable so it turned into an expensive rug rack! Swapped stables with YO's horse and hers eats neatly out of it as though it's a dining table, how annoying is that?

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

I use a large 'Trug' clipped to the wall in the corner. It's rubber/plastic so he can't hurt himself on it, it holds loads, can be removed for cleaning & cost about £7.

 

[Equibeau]

Glad it's not just mine!
(My latest is to tie the haynet above the haybar, so it catches the stuff so he cant spread it over the floor!)

 

[derricks]

HI

I went to B & Q and got a large plastic water tank (the ones that you have in the loft at home) drilled some holes in the side attached some rope with a lead rope clip on put a tie up ring on the wall to attach it to and you have a very cheap hay bar. I got the largest one that I could find and can fit 3/4 of a bale of hay in it at one time.
Works great
Sam

 

[CJ1]

wow, some people have great imaginations and DIY abilities.


I thought about getting a hay bar, but my lad HAS to look over his door to see whats going on and would walk back after every mouthful leaving a trail thro the bed. I tried with hay on the floor but most of it gets dumped outside his stable door, so back to having a haynet.

I like the idea of the flexi-bucket on the wall, might look into that.

 

[happihorse]

I have a haybar and have also found that my horse pulls all of his hay out and mixes it in the bed. However, I have now put a tie ring on the wall in the bottom of the haybar and now tie a haynet to that - no chansce of him getting his legs caught - no mess - and he is eating off the floor! Result!

 

[jumbyjack]

Now that is a seriously good idea, why didn't I think of it!

 

[madhector]

that is an excellent idea!

 

[madhector]

thanks guys for all your ideas, will get building over the weekend

 

[Law]

That is a really good idea.

I couldn't afford a real haybar so I went to Focus and bought a huge 200 (?) litre water butt with a removable lid and put that in the corner of the stable. (£20) It is about 3ft6 high and he managed to eat quite tidily out of it but he gained a lot of weight as he is a stupidly good doer. I then decided to hang a haynet above the bucket and it collected all the bits that fell and stopped the wastage. I've had to subsequently reduce his intake even more and now he has triple netted small hole haynets so the water butt is sitting redundant in the tackroom as a glorified storage bin!

Good luck with your building exploits on the weekend.

 

[Bounty]

I'll take piccys and measure up for you tomorrow.
x

 

[madhector]

thankyou!

 

[Bounty]

Right....piccies as promised.

They measure approx 112cm across the top, and down both the sides, and 19cm across the bottom.
We didn't do them to this size for any reason in particular, the 1st one was this size and worked ok, so did the others the same.

The 2nd pic is to show you the size in comparison to a 15.1 - modelled by the lovely Bamboozle!

Lets see if i remember how to do this!

[image]

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[madhector]

thanks for that, will get dad building